


The Echo of Love

by sorayume



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Darth Vader Needs a Hug, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Mentioned Padmé Amidala, POV Luke Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28038129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorayume/pseuds/sorayume
Summary: Luke has visions of a women in Pain, he goes to investigate and runs into trouble and only Darth Vader can be the one to save him.
Relationships: Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader
Comments: 12
Kudos: 40





	The Echo of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Severnlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severnlight/gifts).



> Song for this fic   
> https://open.spotify.com/track/1KOGBw8kuawbxJWqcHypy0?si=qEUwpXhcQquKL5Qfv8Qb3A

Luke had not slept well all week. He kept seeing visions in his sleep. A beautiful woman wearing white, screaming in pain, a voice speaking to her to breathe to push. Obviously, she was pregnant and giving birth. Every time he rested her vision plagued his dreams! He could not get her out of his mind. Last night had been the final straw, he heard a man calling her name in anguish. This just had to be a force vision. 

Luke had meditated on his visions, and the meditations had guided him, across the galaxy to a Rebel Base on Polis Massa. He grabbed a transport and headed there to see what was happening. He could not let these dreams plague him any longer. He had to know what was happening there. Maybe this woman required his guidance through the force in her birth. There HAD to be a reason he was being led here. 

His muscles twitched as he flew, he had lost his X-Wing at Besbin a month ago, and he was still adapting to the smaller non-fighter vehicle he was using for his missions while the Rebellion looked to free up another snub fighter for him. His hand still ached a bit, the neural interfacing not perfectly aligned. He tried his best to ignore it. Focusing on THAT stream of thought led him down a path he didn’t want to venture. To thoughts of a possible family, he was scared to acknowledge.

Arriving at the Outer Rim mining facility, he was surprised to find no one was around. It seemed completely abandoned. Yet the force sang to him, called to him as he came out of Hyperspace. It was like a siren call begging him to come hither and see what it had to share. No part of him wanted to resist that call, so he followed forth.

Landing next to the facility, Luke checked the readings for the planet. No atmosphere. Great, he thought to himself and grabbed the spare air tank and a breathing mask and strapped them to his back before he climbed out of the cockpit. 

Making his way to what seemed like the front door of the facility, he saw a green light above a button next to it. Door controls! Perfect. Luke pushed the button and for a moment nothing happened. Then the door started to slide open. He felt his body tension in apprehension for whatever was beyond. Yet that apprehension was sliced by a shrill high pitched whining that filled the air. He felt immense pressure in his ears and covered them with his gloved hands and squinted his eyes trying to close the sound out with every ounce of his being. Then a pulse of energy hit him. He fell back a step. And there was an electric sizzling sound all around him, then all the little sounds that had been ceased as well as the high pitched whining. 

Opening his eyes back open, Luke looked around in panic. What had just happened! Darkness was all around him. All the lights of the facility were off, and the dark open door loomed before him. Looking behind him. He balked in worry. That was his only way off this damn rock. Running over he tried to get it started back up, he switched the on the switch and nothing happened. He swore to himself and checked the circuit board, pulling it out. It was completely fried. It looked like it had been overloaded. Tossing it aside in frustration he pulled out his comm unit. Yup fried too. He placed his head in his hands and wanted to scream in frustration.

Why did he come here? Chasing a nightmare? Thinking he could be a hero? Yoda was right, he was a reckless child. He should have at least set up some contingency plan with Leia… for just this type of situation, he had been far too caught up in his need to investigate he had not taken the time to stop and think. This wasn’t like him. He needed a good night's sleep. He had about a half days air supply in his tank, so he needed a solution before that ran out. Or he would run out of time and that would be that. 

He needed to meditate. The force had led him here, the force would lead him where he needed to go, it would show him a way out of here. He climbed out of the ship and slipped into a force trance. Slowly he let the force guide him along its byways of light and darkness, seeking the solution to his problem. He stretched for the firm and warming light of Leia, but the road to her veered away, the force was pushing him down and away. She wasn’t the solution. Letting the force guide him, it took him deeper into his subconscious to that little string he had cut off, that dark tendril. No! No, it couldn’t want him to contact HIM. Could it. He strained against the force, looking for any other solution, yet every path he took in the force led him right back to that dark tendril, to the wall he had built to block that dark connection of denied familial bond.

Tentatively, Luke opened the door to that connection in his mind. Behind it, the soft dark line of Darth Vader lay waiting for him to dance upon its path. It wanted to be fed by his light, for the connection between them to be re-upped and reformed. For their bond to strengthen. It was like a handheld out in welcome, lay there unretreating as his light nuzzled against it. 

At first, nothing happened. Luke brushed the tendril with the softest of brushes with his mind. He must be mad, this couldn’t be what the force wanted. But the symphony of the force was singing louder with each approach he made. It called for him to let go, to there. To open himself.

So Luke did. He opened himself and called with his soul to the man on the other side “Va…. No. Father! Are you there? Father do you hear me?”

The black tendril danced to life suddenly with his plea. It bloomed forth and wrapped itself around Luke metaphysically. A warm reminder that it was there and desired him. It wanted him, it needed him. The voice of Darth Vader spoke back “Luke… Luke, you have reached out for me?”

Luke did his best to not pull away from the possessive tendrils wrapping themselves around him. Embracing him. “Yes, Vader I am here. I… I think I need your help.”

A surge of joy sprang over the force. It was almost so overwhelming that Luke passed out. He braced himself in the force, creating a shelter from the surge of sudden unexpected light side energy pounding into him “Help?! Are you safe? Where are you I will come for you promptly.” Vader said in his ever so common demanding and authoritative way. Now was NOT the time to resist his lack of propriety on handling other independent adults, Luke needed him sooner than later. Luke shared with Vader where he was through the force and had assurances that Vader would be there as soon as possible. 

* * *

  
A few hours passed and Luke was growing weary with exhaustion, watching his oxygen monitor on his tank slowly dwindle when a TIE advanced zoomed out of hyperspace above the mining base. He felt Vader’s overwhelming force presence wash over him aggressively and soon the man was stepping out of his vehicle and walking toward him. Luke jumped to his feet, nervously taking a step back and steeling his nerves as the giant black-clad man loomed towards him. He tried his best to even his breath as his mind filled with flashbacks of the last time they had met. 

His good hand automatically went to cover his prosthetic, as though to protect it, his eyes falling to the lightsaber on Vader’s belt as he walked up and stopped a few feet from Luke. The whirring breath of the respirator filled Luke’s ears as they stood staring at one another apprehensively. Everything inside him wanted to bolt, to flee to be gone from the Dark Lord’s presence. Everything but a tiny morsel of him that longed for that man’s acceptance. Luke spoke first. “Darth Vader…” he said, words failing to say much more.

“Commander Skywalker, I see you are well considering the…circumstances. You surprise me with your request for a visitation son.” 

“Yeah well… you were the only one I knew to reach out to, and I don’t want to die out here alone. Not after all I have… not after everything” Luke stammered. He really was worried about how this would go from here. Would Vader take him into custody? Drag him before his master?

“I sense your apprehension, fear not, I am here only to help you as requested. If I wanted to take you for myself I would not have come alone. How did you come to be in this cursed empty place? The force… the force speaks to its importance there is in feeling in it I have not felt since…” Vader replied, his voice abnormally reassuring. 

“Um… Well…. I have been having these nightmares of this place.” Luke said gesturing over his shoulder to the building behind him. “I thought the lady from them, well I thought she might need help! I couldn’t not come to make sure she was ok. But when I got here it was abandoned.” 

Vader stopped and Luke felt his pondering spirit then, after a while he spoke “At times, the force speaks to us in echos, it can speak of that which is and could be and was. Those echoes can resound through time and space and reach us at the least expected times. Tell me more about your vision. There must be a reason for it.” 

Vader stepped forward and placed a hand on Luke’s shoulder. Luke winced and went to take a step back, his touch igniting all of Luke’s memories of the fateful fight on their last meeting. Did he felt a wave of… sorrow? Wash through the force. “Luke, I will not harm you. I…. I was wrong for what I did to you at Cloud City. I never meant to harm you.” 

Luke’s eyes welled with tears at Vader’s words. He must be dreaming, this was so out of character for the Lord of the Sith. The second to the Emporer. “I…. I… I understand. I forgive you, father, we both fought with anger.” Luke truely felt those words. He didn’t want to hate this man. He sensed the good in him, the love. It was so different than the normal raging anger. A sound that seemed like a broken respiratory gurgle resounded from Vader. His hand, gentle on Luke’s shoulder shuddered softly. His emotions surged through Luke. He felt so much and so strongly How could Luke have not noticed before? Maybe Luke’s own emotions had kept him from sensing these.

It seemed like hours but was assuredly only minutes when Vader spoke next. “Let me see your visions my my son, I will help you understand these nightmares that plague you, open yourself to sharing them with me. I will guide you to the best of my ability to seeing their meaning.” His hand slid up to Luke’s cheek in a soft clutching embrace. 

Luke nodded in response. He was lost for words. This was going so differently than he could have expected. This was the sort of Love he had only dreamed of feeling from a family member. The warmth radiating from that glove covered prosthetic was warmer in feeling that he had dreamed of feeling. Pulling Vader’s other hand to the other side of his face, Luke placed his hands on either side on the outside of Vader’s hands. He closes his eyes and he opened his mind to that memory.

As he entered the memory, he pulled the dark tendrils of Darth Vader along with him. It felt like he held Vader’s darkness in his prosthetic hand and his Father… Anakin’s… light in the other. Together they dove into the dream memory.

As the face of the women who had plagued Luke every night surfaced, the softness of his father erupted into sorrow and rage. And he heard a howl penetrate his memory and self “P…. PADME!” Screamed every ounce of Vader’s being, and Luke found himself pulled from that memory and into a flashing nightmarish dream of guilt and misery. 

“Are you an angel?” “Space is cold…” “I truly deeply love you…” “I have never been so happy.” “YOU ARE BREAKING MY HEART!” Images he didn’t recognize of faces he didn’t know flashed through him at speeds he couldn’t comprehend. It was as if he was on a ship crashing through an endless blast of misery, he felt like he and Anakin were falling apart on entry to these memories. Nothing about this was healthy. He had to stop this. 

“F… FATHER. ANAKIN STOP!” Luke cried out and his eyes came forward and Vader was dropped to his knees shaking in emotion. Luke threw his arms full force around the shaking man, and pulled him into the tightest hug and embrace he could. He spent every ounce of his emotional energy to send calming love to the obviously disturbed and tormented man in his arms. With time, the shaking stopped and he felt his father pull back to the current moment. Large powerful arms wrapped around Luke in a returned embrace. 

“Luke…. Luke I…”

“I know Father I know.”

“That was your mother, that was Padme…. you saw her death, she died…. loving you Luke. She died hoping for the best for you. Luke, she loved you so much, she dreamed of raising you in sheltered happiness. I am sorry Luke, I…. I took her from you.” Vader’s mask nuzzled against Luke’s shoulder. Luke was sure that if Vader could cry, he would be. But Luke would never know. He kept hugging Vader reassuringly.

“It… it’s ok Father. It can’t be changed, we have to move on. I know she would want us to live for the future, not to wallow in our past mistakes.” Luke said, pushing calming tendrils of light into the panicked and sad man.

Darth Vader, Lord of the sith actually relaxed in Luke’s arms. He relaxed and Luke felt years of inner angst and misery pass from his shoulders with that motion. And the lowest registered words the mask could express spoke “A sorry won’t fix this Luke… I can never undo what has been done.”

Luke pulled away from their embrace and looked through the red lens of his father's mask, his eyes searching the eyes within. Blue like his own. “Sorry might not fix it father, but Love can move us forward.”

They left that planet that day, the place of Luke’s birth. His father spoke of Padme, his mother. Queen. Senator. Friend of the small. Brilliant. Witty. Beautiful. Passionate. Darth Vader, his father flew him to the nearest spaceport. They knew this could only be a day, only a memory. They were on two different sides of a war. But in that moment, in that afternoon they could feel the love they had never come to feel before. They could pretend it all meant nothing, and they did.

**Author's Note:**

> Sev, you are an amazing strong person. You are so amazing that you inspired me to write a fanfic with ZERO whump and some fluff in it. I hope that this brightens your day, just a little bit. Sorry it’s so angsty. The aim was mostly fluff, but I mean come on it’s still me writing it!!
> 
> Thank you to Spell for helping me come up with the idea, and to Libby for sprinting the way through writing it with me today <3
> 
> I hope y’all enjoyed my first attempt at fluff!
> 
> This gift also fulfills two of my other obligations.  
> Obligation A: Write fluff, Because Trump didn’t win and I have to admit optimism wins for Kitt.  
> Angst Bingo Promopt!: “Sorry won’t fix this”


End file.
